He is 19 at least more mature and hopefully can make the stops we need him to make. I know his #'s aren't great but lets face it look around there aren't a ton of .900 SV % goalies falling out of the skies. Welcome to Owen Sound Olivier. Take a little pressure off Mack hopefully they work well together and this works out for the best.

Players pile on former 67’s goalie Olivier Lafreniere, the newest member of the Owen Sound Attack. ASHLEY FRASER / POSTMEDIAPlayers pile on former 67’s goalie Olivier Lafreniere, the newest member of the Owen Sound Attack. ASHLEY FRASER / POSTMEDIA

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Olivier Lafreniere can prove he is a number-one goaltender in the Ontario Hockey League following a trade between the Owen Sound Attack and Ottawa 67’s on Wednesday.

Dale DeGray has sent an eighth-round pick in the 2019 OHL Priority Selection for the 19-year-old goaltender. The 67’s will receive a third-round selection in 2021 if Lafreniere plays an over-age season.

“A third-round pick would be a small price to pay if he plays well enough to warrant the over-age season,” said DeGray.

“He’s a guy who now has a chance to be a number one goalie in the league,” said DeGray after the trade became official. “He has a chance to prove everybody wrong.”

Lafreniere became the odd man out in Ottawa when the 67’s dealt for former Quebec Major Junior over-age goalie Olivier Tremblay in September.

The Attack’s newest goalie has a 4.19 goals-against-average and .870 save percentage through 12 games played this season.

Through 34 games played last season, Lefreniere posted a 3.71 goals against average and .888 save percentage.

The Bradford native played Junior B with the Wellington Dukes for parts of two seasons before joining the Ontario Hockey League as a third-round pick of the 67’s. He played minor-midget for the York-Simcoe Express, and was part of an OHL Gold Cup championship winning team with the Attack’s Jonah Gadjovich in 2014.

DeGray had been looking for an experienced goaltender since over-age goalie Zach Bowman left the team. However, the general manager said he was unwilling to pay the prices other managers wanted for their higher-profile and well established goaltenders.

“The fans need to understand Michael McNiven is not coming back,” said DeGray. “I love our fans but I know they put a lot of pressure on the kids, especially on the back-end.”

The Owen Sound Attack had lost six division games while backstopped by two goalies with less than 25 OHL games between them. Mack Guzda, 16, made a number of highlight-reel saves, but DeGray has made it clear experience is king between the pipes.

Lafreniere will join the team on Wednesday, and will wear number 35, but DeGray expects he won’t see game action until the weekend.

Riley Daniels has been reassigned to the Kitchener Dutchmen of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

The Owen Sound Attack is announcing that General Manager Dale DeGray has completed a trade to acquire goaltender Olivier Lafreniere from the Ottawa 67’s in exchange for a conditional 8th round pick in the 2019 OHL Priority Selection.

A native of Bradford, ON, Lafreniere was selected 57th overall by the 67’s in the 2014 OHL Draft and made his league debut last season.

Olivier Lafreniere of the Ottawa 67's. Photo by Terry Wilson / O

Lafreniere has appeared in 46 career games with Ottawa, compiling a 15-21-4-0 record along with a 3.84 goals against average and an .870 save percentage.

Of his newly acquired goaltender, DeGray says “Olivier is a great addition to our team and is a player who will be given the chance to be a number one goalie in this league. He’s worked with our goalie coach, Greg Redquest, in the past and we know that he can come in and be a big contributor. We’re very excited to bring him into the fold.”

Lafreniere will wear number 35 for the Attack and is expected to be at practice on Wednesday afternoon.

In a corresponding move, Riley Daniels has been reassigned to the Kitchener Jr. B Dutchmen.

This season of Attack Hockey is brought to you by Lerner’s Personal Injury Lawyers and Bertrand & Muzzell Paralegal Services.

I read that wonderful article about the Attack and the City of Owen Sound and it re-iterated my feelings that we have a great organization here in Owen Sound with great people. There are so many OHL fan bases that would switch places any day of the week to have what we have experienced over the past 7-8 years. This season does not change blur my vision. DeGray took some shots and missed, just like all GM's do. Nobody has a perfect track record. You can't win them all.

This move is another shot in the dark, obviously putting some faith in the goalie coach of the organization, in hopes of getting that .900 goaltending we all are looking for. Good luck to this kid, and as we all see the pressure is on. I hope the kid is ready for it.

I guess it's the second hand golfing rumours that did it for me. I heard them months ago and didn't believe them. I was gob-smacked at the idea the team brass didn't believe this was their year.

Now I do believe them. It is definitely not their year.

That's all it is.

I wonder if Gill ever caught wind....

As for DD's record...There have been builds that were wrecked by DD moving at the wrong time or not making a move....and he already got a pass for those. He accomplished more than anyone else (with Mike Futa's foundation in place) by pulling off a couple of seemingly astute trades. In the fullness of time it looks as though he strikes gold at an average rate (at best), but did so with a nice foundation and some good timeliness in the case of the championship year. Example: Lyle was a good pick-up, but Propp would have made a bigger difference and probably for a longer period of time. Under the circumstances, that's a very big miss. Vella should have been a place-holder and the hunt for a top end goaltender could have been on without changing anything or losing anyone. Another miss.

Winding up with this team and goaltending at the very bottom of the league is disastrously bad.

This year really takes the cake. I guess it's good for salary negotiations if you're an owner.

This is a really important year for the Memorial Cup. The most important year in the last 100. I'm sure somebody wants it a whole lot more than OS. Time will tell who that someone is.

Well let's see how the kid does here in Owen Sound. It was clear from what I saw Daniels is not an OHL calibre goalie and Guzda should not be in the #1 role at 16 yrs old.

Trading a goalie when you don't have a goalie to trade only complicated the situation. You ether trade with a team that had 3 goalies and when I checked none of those goalies on those teams had stats that were much differnt. The other option being the team giving up the goalie would have to have a competent goalie in their system who could be called up to play.

Hindsight is 20-20, but who really thought Bowman was anything but a placeholder from the start? Dale DeGray....that's who.

The league is incredibly weak in goal this year. The Attack are the most obvious victim. Kitchener and London both found a way to deal with it. Dale did not. He started with a huge advantage on them....and still let it go.

Unless he's flipping another goaltender he's missed his opportunity on at least 3 or 4 occasions.

It's very unfortunate for everyone....but they'll have to make the best of it.

I had a coversation with Dale during training camp about goaltending. Dale is pretty tight with info but he did share the details on a proposed trade with SSM but they told him they would not trade Raymakers to Owen Sound becuase they felt the Attack would be their toughest competition during the playoffs and they did not want to play against him. SSM had other offers that were not as good as the Attack offer and eventually settled on London after their terrible start to the season.

Digger wrote:I had a coversation with Dale during training camp about goaltending. Dale is pretty tight with info but he did share the details on a proposed trade with SSM but they told him they would not trade Raymakers to Owen Sound becuase they felt the Attack would be their toughest competition during the playoffs and they did not want to play against him. SSM had other offers that were not as good as the Attack offer and eventually settled on London after their terrible start to the season.

You mean to tell me there are still GM's out there willing to underestimate the "resourcefulness" of London? They need no help with preferential treatment as a trade partner. I have trouble believing the decision was as $anitary and innocent as that. Disappointing if true. Same old. Always the bridesmaid. This may look like an even worse decision for SSM if Victor Mete is returned to the Knights after the World Juniors. A possibility. That and a couple more rabbits out of Dale Hunters top hat at the deadline and SSM may find themselves in a dog fight with London. Wouldn't that be irony at its finest.

I agree hhh lets cheer the young man on and give him a bit of time to show what he has. Ottawa had high hopes for him when they drafted him not sure what happened in Ottawa but many time over my 35 + yrs of following Jr hockey I have lost count of how many kids benefited from a change of scenery. Yes it can work the other way but lets give Olie the goalie a fair shot. I did notice one year i saw an .888 sv% so lets give him a shot.